Tata Steel hints at price revision

"What has gone down has to go up," Tata Steel's managing director HM Nerurkar said at a conference at the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership today when asked about his view on steel prices after the PSU steel maker SAIL hinted at price revision from January. Mr Nerurkar, however, declined to divulge more.

Several steel makers in the country are expected to revise prices upwards from early next year to cash in on the uptick in demand. Earlier, State-run SAIL, private players Bhushan Steel, Essar & JSW Steel had said they were likely to hike prices of their products by January 2010 as demand was picking up.

Steel prices had gone down globally by $100-$150 a tonne to $400 per tonne during the past few months on account of influx of cheap imports from China. But in the past month, prices have gone up worldwide by $50 on good demand.

Speaking about Corus, Mr Nerurkar said Tata Steel would leverage the capabilities of Corus in the construction space back in India. He said the European steel market was shrinking and it needed to make profits from lower production.

He also expects more orders from the European Union in the construction space after it got two orders from Europe recently, including one from France.

Speaking about challenges in leadership, he mentioned that one challenge for Tata Steel is managing talent, as some 25%-30% of its managers are due to retire from the company in the next two-three years.— Yogesh Sapkale